Happy new year!

Long thread.
Someone in or behind twitter gave me a "this account violated the twitter rules..." supposedly for this reply (image 1 at bottom of thread). I appealed with "A question is hate?" They upheld their decision with: "Our support team has

If you use it right, Twitter is the most powerful platform in the world.

But Twitter does a horrible job of showing you its advanced features.

Here are 10 of them you probably know nothing about:

The most underutilized Twitter feature: advanced search.

It blows my mind how few people know this.

Want to find someone's best tweets?

In the search bar, type:

from:dickiebush min_faves:500

Replace the handle and the number of likes as you see fit.

Another good advanced search tip:

Want to see everyone's tweets on a particular topic?

In the search bar, type:

from:dickiebush "consistency"

Again, replace the handle and keyword as you see fit.

You can filter by popularity too:

from:dickiebush "consistency" min_faves:100

We all have those people we don't want following us, but don't want to block.

Here's a good hack:

Block them, then unblock them.

This will unfollow you, but they'll never know.

Get mentioned in a tweet that is receiving way too many replies, turning your notifications into a disaster?

I've been there.

Click to expand the details of the tweet, then click the three dots on the top right-hand corner.

Then, click "mute this conversation."

I wrote a lot of pieces in 2020! As we close out the year, I want to share a short list of my favorites. (thread)

In March, while we all watched in horror as the Trump administration botched the initial response to the pandemic, I wrote for @Independent about the bizarre and unjust access many healthy celebrities gained to COVID tests, which were quite scarce.

In April, when it was apparent Joe Biden was on his way to winning the nomination, I wrote for @washingtonpost on why progressives should have optimism about a Biden White House.

In June, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling affirming employment protections for LGBTQ people. It's cause for celebration, but as I wrote for @Cosmopolitan: this is a mere fraction of LGBTQ equality. We *must* pass the Equality Act.

That same month brought controversy as J.K. Rowling seemed to be completely unaware of the violence and discrimination faced by trans and non-binary people. So, I wrote about my own experiences in that vein for @USAToday in the hopes of educating folks:

Why are SWs freaking out right now? (This gets bumpy, hold on.)

Twitter came through and deleted a ton of accounts. We are worried that we are next. It could be nudity, it could be retweets, it could be content posted- we don't know. And while Twitter has clear rules, SWs get

Punished often for not even breaking the rules but just existing, so we are on edge.

Twitter/IG/TikTok are ways we advertise and build a base so when we get deplatformed without explanation, we have to start from scratch somewhere else. We lose years of contacts/content.

So, what is driving these tightened restrictions?

It could be a bunch of laws. FOSTA/SESTA came through a few years ago & made it very unsafe for SWs, both online and real time workers. It even crippled businesses like sex educators and therapists. This was a bipartisan effort.

Bc of these laws, platforms censored their content and users. Remember those Craigslist ads? Meet up groups? Bad date lists?

All gone when F/S came through. So let's move to EARN IT. EI is in limbo right now, just waiting on the new term to get rolling. It isn't dead.

EI is gonna be the every man's F/S. EI is gonna censor so many of YOU READING THIS and then what will you do!? (More of that later.)

Fuck. Ok. Then we have Section 230, also just fucking chillin, waiting for passing. 230 is gonna make it to where sites will be held liable

What I learnt on the Twitter this week:

1. Doug Ford declares State of Emergency. Says he doesn't understand what people don't understand about the rules. Either stay home or go to Walmart to buy essential cream cheese.
2. Ford announces his French lessons are going tray bueno.

3. Kenney announces Alberta will begin procuring their own vaccine because they only have most of the Fed's supply left now.
4. O'Toole announces he just doesn't know how to quit Ezra.
5. Freak storm in Morden, MB; MAGA hat kicked up in the wind; lands on Candace Bergen's head.

6. Canadian Conservative politicians and staffers mourn the loss of Parler which they have never heard of.
7. Kenney signs giant cardboard guarantee saying coal will be mined from Rockies without loss of a single acre of protected land unless it's accidentally delisted and sold.

8. Ford defenestrates MPP Baber from caucus after Baber complains about lockdown. Ford says he's already busy enough locking down Phillips and Oosterhoff.
9. Ontario's Minister of LTCs adheres to lockdown rules and takes three-week vacation under her bed.
10. Où est la Fullerton?

11. Just when you thought Andrew Scheer couldn't defenestrate his reputation any further, Andrew Scheer fully defenestrates himself. Like, maaaddd defenestration going on here.
12. Moments before Parler shuts down, thousands of Canadians post "What does defenderthestation mean?"